Come to the Demonstration on the Global Day Against Racism

We are calling on everyone on the Global Day Against Racism: We want to raise our voices against racism, antiromaism, islamophobia, antisemitism, and against the inhumane asylum policies of Germany and Europe. While German enterprises like Heckler & Koch are exporting weapons to regions of crisis, people are dying in the Mediterranean while attempting to flee armed conflicts and war. While European governments are deciding on economic agreements outside of the EU that propel exploitation and poverty, people are being denied immigration into Europe. The new walls in and around Europe signify a continuation of European colonialism. Via racial profiling, police, authorities and institutions are continuing within the EU what the border patrol agency Frontex does at the external borders. The outrage over such inhumane policies is what we want to bring collectively and loudly to the streets on 21. March 2015 for the Global Day Against Racism.

For more than two years now refugees and supporters in Berlin have been publicly and visibly fighting against the institutional racism in Germany and Europe. We stand in solidarity with the self-organized refugee protests in Berlin. The demands of the refugees are the complete abolition of the Residenzpflicht and residence restrictions, an end to placing people in Lagers as well as all deportations. The right of abode, education, work possibilities, and the right to live where one desires belong to everyone! End the politically supported social isolation of refugees!

The German government is now planning a massive intensification of the right of residence with a law that would restructure the right of abode (Bleiberecht) and when the right of residence terminates: Among other things, the amount of detention pending deportation will be massively expanded, and the right of abode settlement will be thrown out of the window with the instruments of suspending people’s rights of residence and canceling return trips to Germany. This law will presumably be passed in Summer 2015.

Instead of tightening and intensifying these laws, we demand immediate amendments: These include accommodation, places to live, the services of ALG and healthcare for all refugees. We demand unrestricted access to the work market. Refugees, who, for example, have found a room or bed in a WG or another place should have their accommodation costs reimbursed to them by the national bureau of social health (LaGeSo). Children and youth should be immediately allowed enrollment in kindergartens and schools. The right to work without having to wait to see if any other EU citizen can be substituted for the job must be implemented. LaGeSo must therefore be responsible for providing refugees with BVG tickets in Berlin so that they can move throughout the city. Racial profiling in public and particularly during local and regional traveling by the national police, Berlin police, the Deutsche Bahn and BVG staff must cease immediately.

My Right Is Your Right! is a campaign comprised of creative artists, activists, lawyers, refugees, church officials, unionists, clubs, neighborhood initiatives, and individuals. What connects us all is the wish for a stronger political intervention in Berliner refugee policies, which is only possible with a union of various forces. Our campaign wants to establish space for empowerment in order to heighten the visibility of the struggle against various forms of discrimination because refugees are especially often subject to manifold discrimination. We want to collectively initiate a political change. That is why we are taking to the streets on March 21st!